Valley defeats Trimble, 63-47

Portsmouth- The Valley Indians defeated the Trimble Tomcats Saturday night by a score of 63-47. Valley had to mount a second half comeback in order to stay undefeated and managed to hand the first loss of the season to Trimble.

Trimble started the game by dominating Valley inside. Tomcat center Bryce Guthrie had 13 1st quarter points and a plethora of rebounds as the Indians couldn’t stop his size. Guthrie managed to collect second and third chance shots multiple times throughout the night for Trimble as Valley’s big men failed to match his physicality. The first quarter ended with a 19-14 Trimble advantage.

Brian Rolfe was held scoreless the entire second half. He was subject to double teams much of the night. Despite their leading scorer being held in check, Valley managed to get others involved. Bryce Romenello energized the Indians on multiple occasions giving maximum effort on every play. The Indians always looked jump the passing lanes and poke the ball away and they capitalized on shoddy ball handling by the Tomcats. By the half Valley managed to inch within three, 32-29.

Valley came out of the half and did two things they hadn’t done: they rebounded the ball and managed to get Bryan Rolfe on the scoreboard. They limited Guthrie on the glass and in the paint the rest of the night and instituted the press themselves at the time. By the end of three they were up 44-40.

The Indians finished off the Tomcats in a big way in the fourth. They went on a 18-4 run during the quarter. Rolfe managed all of his 11 points in the second half. Blake Howard led the Indians with 16. For the Tomcats, Guthrie led all scorers with 24 points.

“We knew coming into it that it was going to be hard fought,” admitted Valley Head Coach Scott Rolfe. “They play very physically. In the first half they killed us on the boards. We only had seven total rebounds in the first. We adjusted to that in the second half, along with the fact that we came out with more energy and created turnovers and got the tempo up.”

“To only be down three the way we played the first half we were pretty happy. In the second we finally started making some shots. Bryan’s shot wasn’t working until the second half, and you are going to have those nights. He had 65 shots in the last two games, but if we can win even when he’s struggling than

says a lot for our team. Romenello had a couple steals, some breakaways and brings a lot of energy. This is his third game back and we are still working him into basketball shape.”